Which Houston hospitals are making patients sick? Ratings for avoiding preventable infections

Updated 11:35 am, Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Consumer reports ranked more than 40 Houston-area hospitals to see which were best at avoiding infection in a number of surgical categories. These were their overall rankings ...

(Methodology: Consumer Reports ranked hospitals based on their ability to prevent five common types of infections, then assigned an overall rating, presented above. Hospitals were ranked on a five-tier scale from "Better" to "Worse," based on their performance versus the national average. That five-tier scale has been simplified here in a more traditional 1-5 ratings to improve clarity. Hospitals rated "5 out of 5" here would fall into Consumer Reports' "Better" category; hospitals rated "1 out of 5" would fall into Consumer Reports' "Worse" category. Hospitals rated "3 out of 5" fall at or slightly above the national baseline.)

Which Houston hospitals are making patients sick? Ratings for avoiding preventable infections

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If the first rule of being a doctor is primum non nocere – "first, do no harm" – then avoiding preventable infections at hospitals plays a big role in making sure patients go home in better shape than they came in.

Last week, Consumer Reports released its full ratings of Houston-area hospitals and their ability to avoid infections.

Of Houston's largest hospitals, only one, Woman's Hospital of Texas, received Consumer Reports' top rating. Three received it's lowest ranking, for infections more than 100 percent worse than the national baseline.

(Methodology: Consumer Reports ranked hospitals based on their ability to prevent five common types of infections, then assigned an overall rating, presented above. Hospitals were ranked on a five-tier scale from "Better" to "Worse," based on their performance versus the national average. That five-tier scale has been simplified here in a more traditional 1-5 ratings to improve clarity. Hospitals rated "5 out of 5" here would fall into Consumer Reports' "Better" category; hospitals rated "1 out of 5" would fall into Consumer Reports' "Worse" category. Hospitals rated "3 out of 5" fall at or slightly above the national baseline.)